As much as I like my '68 Camaro and my '69 Blazer, everything has a price. As you pointed out Frank, the market is hot when a car is fresh. There is always something new coming out and styles come and go. Also you wonder why you built something this way and if you had to do again, you probably have a better way to do it the next time.

Both the Camaro and Blazer will not be advertised for sale but if someone opens their mouth with a serious offer, they will likley end up owning them. I can always build another one using the newest and coolest trick parts that I had wished was available when I did the last one.

Mike

The cars that were going for big money ($150,000 +)were cars built by the well known builders. People will pay for Boyd, Foose and Troy cars, look at the price they got for the 53 FR100 truck $205K. There were some "good" buys there but not for the "average" guy. When a Hemi clone sells for almost double of a original car...something is wrong. Barret-Jackson is its own world. :faint:

I think a lot of it has to do with the age of the buyers... Pro-Touring is a "young-guy" thing, as it's a pretty new trend. Not too many young guys are able to afford a $100,000+ car.

Do you think that there is a 'stigma' attached to a custom car? I have known a few local cars that basically fade away because of these issues.

1. The owner wants way too much thinking that he is the only and the best builder.

2. The car will always be known as "Bill's car", "That blue truck", "The Hemi car", etc. The new owner inherits the 'identity' of the previous owner. Unless something drastic is changed on the car (usually expensive), it will be the 'car that has been around for years'.

3. There are some who admire the builder as much as the car, therefore, the new owner gets no respect for purchasing a complete car. The 'Built it vs. Bought it' crowd that usually is masking their jealousy for not having the cash to openly make a large purchase. (We all know this person in a car circle)

Does any of that make sense?

On a related note, I have a friend who is a custom, small quantity home builder. He had his best luck with 'starter homes' that were appealing to many. When he started building homes for two to three times the price, he had trouble selling them. The reason? People looking to spend nearly half a million on a custom home wanted to have some input towards the project. For that kind of money, they wanted to pick colors, room styles, etc. Much like cars, when the buyer has more to spend, they usually find the exact match to their tastes, or just contract it out to get what they want.

My two pennies on the topic,
Randy

I think this answers question 2 and 3. There is no doubt a car becomes the first owners car for life, no matter who owns it, it will always be Bill's car, etc. I think you are exactly right

I think it's really hard to compare the rare collector car prices the 'resto-mod' prices. We all know that the rare cars are bought as an investments. I'm not building my car as an investment or do I hope that I'd ever have to sell it, but it's nice to know that there's value in what I'm doing.

On a side note, the Baldwin-Motion SuperCoupe was in the top 1% of all the money getters at B-J and it was the 2nd highest price paid for a Camaro this year (behind only the ZL1).

I dissagree somewhat Frank. We are talking about a Barrett Jackson/national stage auction here. Not me selling my car locally. Take the aluminator for example. I would be curious to know how many people that bid on the car knew it was Charley's,Jody's, Stewart's, etc's "old" car. Trueth is the car sold on it's own merits, and brought good money for what it is. Shame is, it is on the start of the Protouring genre curve so to speak, and would have probably done better next year as the name grows. However this will help future sales, probably some cars from this very site. :thumbsup:
Reality is, other than for a couple national websites, no one has ever heard of Bill Howell, so unless they happen to read about the car in PHR or somewhere, the goat is just a car on the stage at selling time. That of course is a two edged sword. Good thing is it will be the new owners car as much as my old car, bad thing is, it has no celebrity status, hence no celebrity price. If TwinStang was sold, it would not be advertised as Shawn's car obviously, it would be "The Boyd Coddington TV Show Built Car".
So, that being said, You really need to get going with Prodigy Customs this year, so I can take the goat out next January and advertise it as the "First Full On Prodigy Custom Built" Protouring Car. :rofl:

I'm inclined to think that most people hold more admiration for Pablo Picasso than they do for some shlub that happens to own one of his paintings.

The same is true of car builders and buyers. I have a crapload more respect for Frank or Steve-o than I do for the guy that may eventually buy "Prodigy" or "Streetfighter". Frank and Steve built them with their own hands and sacrificed other stuff at the time to do so as opposed to writing their name on a check below a bunch of zeros.

My 2 cents, Car museums and collectors will always put up more money for their art pieces strictly for the draw. Restorations definetly ruled the show. My boss sold his blue 69 camaro pro-toured Lot #774 for 50,000 and a white 67 camaro painted up like a Baldwin car with a factory like 427 motor sold just around 80,000. The good thing for my boss was that he turned around purchased a 32 Ford 3 window coupe on Friday that probably had a build cost between 150 to 200 grand for 52,000. There was some really nice hot rods sold for around 80,000. I was at the show on Tuesday and watched a stock 69ss 396 camaro sell for just under 70,000, scratching my head the whole time.

That is the point I was trying to make. Most appreciate the builder, few appreciate the deep pockets that keep the builder going. :yes: Without the guy writing the big checks, the builder will quit building.

It takes both parties. Heck, I'd love to buy a Foose car for 25k but I don't think he'd be making a lot of cars. :lol:

The whole scene at BJ seems so out of whack with 'normal' economics, as the marketing and hype affect the prices too much, I think.

Who could've predicted the Bus? :wow:

Randy